Business Tips from Recent Travels

Where should I start this morning? I travelled recently and, as often happens with a crazy rush trip through another country, my mind is abuzz with ideas based on my recent experiences. Travelling is a great way to broaden one’s mind and exposure. I was not going too far this time; a quick nip across our southern border for a blitz training course.

There were things that worked and there were things that failed miserably. I was, as most people are, thoroughly delighted with those that worked. When something goes well we often do not give a second thought to the system behind it. I booked practically everything online; flights, accommodation, vehicle hire. It all worked seamlessly. Checking in was this beautiful 5 minute experience that already had all my details integrated into the system. Somewhere along the line someone had thought ‘what do people want to do when they get to a hotel/airport?’ The answer is clearly not ‘spend hours checking in’. So they have designed their system to make it as painless as possible. Which part of your business do clients hate the most and how can you make it easier to navigate? Which part do they love the most and how can you make not just this part, but the process of getting to it as wonderful as possible?

Two great tips here on making it work. Firstly someone else may have already solved your problem. There may be an app or more complex piece of software that meets your need. Second is really listening to and study your clients. It could be as simple as having the staff record everything that people ever come in looking for but cannot find. I love the late night hours option for shopping at petrol stations...I just do not like what they have on their shelves. There are probably a fairly small number of things that someone rushing home at 10pm kicks themselves for forgetting to buy. Not only that, the quality of good probably varies from area to area. Do some research on what people really look for from you and you may end up attracting more clients.

What did not work this trip? Shopping for trousers! I have no idea why obtaining a pair of premade longs is always such a big deal in my life. Shirt shopping is never an issue. Finding socks is a breeze. The moment that I need a pair of jeans or chinos the wheels just seem to come off the store. It is not like I am an extreme size, in fact if anything I am pretty average in my waistline. A large department store seemed like the best option so in I went. There were the two colours and size I wanted. I got excited; perhaps this was the moment of perfect trouser shopping I had been looking for all my life. Turned out it was premature. One pair fitted great. The next one, despite telling me it was the same size, would not make it over my hips. According to the store clerk this had something to do with manufacturers and cuts being different (as a large multi chain department store I’m pretty sure they have the leverage to push back on suppliers and demand that standard sizing is just that). So now I had to look for a larger size, there wasn’t one on the shelves. Different store clerk offered to check in their system to see if they have one. Sadly the system was wrong and when she ran into the back to grab the promised pair she could not find one. I got told simply ‘there aren’t any’. And she vanished. No other solution. No offers to check another branch, or to see if there is anything similar that would meet my needs in store. Once in a while IT systems fail. This one was dismal. For whatever reason there was no notification system to reorder stock at critical levels (a process which can be automated). It is more likely, given the shabby quality of service I received, that it was an ID-10-T error. At some point a human will have to deal with your client. That human can be your best or worst asset at that point.

Sadly too many organisations, in their race to cut costs, are hiring the cheapest, most generic people that they can lay their hands on to serve as their front line. While they would like the best their hiring process and salary structure means that often they fall far short of that. Then when the system fails they buy a new and better upgrade of the software but leave the same person running it. Pick your people carefully, train them well, equip them with well crafted systems, have them become your voice and let them tell your story the way you want it told.

Doing More in Order Do Do Less

Morning to all , I am of course making the possibly false assumption you are reading this in the morning.
I want you to take part in yet another challenge. Put down the paper and stare at the watch or cellphone for an entire minute.
Do not do anything during this minute, except maybe sip coffee. After a minute continue reading. Go!
Would you look at that, I got you to spend an entire minute doing nothing. I just made you spend a precious minute of your life on a random and futile task.
The sense of urgency associated with time usage is so deeply engrained in us that you are probably experiencing a mini-apoplectic fit at the fact that I made you “lose” a minute of your time. Some of you will probably never forget this lesson. That is probably worth the minute you spent doing nothing.
We spend our lives trying to fill our time with meaningful activities. We start each day with a precious 24 hours and try to cram as much into it as possible.
We are taught that you can never recover time once you have lost it, that time is money or time is important. Above all, we are told to manage time wisely.
You cannot manage time. Think about it; you cannot tell it to slow down or speed up, you cannot tell it what to do neither can you place it somewhere else.
Time is the immutable trundle of seconds flowing past you into the waste basket of “then”. You cannot waste time either, you merely waste yourself.
What we term as “wasting time” is merely our failure to achieve more or to be better people during our lives. You cannot manage time. You can only manage yourself.
Today, I would like to share with you two tricks to enhancing self-management. I learnt these from Todd Henry’s book ‘‘Accidental Creative” and have found that when I engage in both regularly I am much more relaxed and effective.
Both come out of the fact that due to our pre-conceived training on time usage we feel the need to fill every available moment with productivity.
We cram our time with tasks and projects. Most of these are aimed at fulfilling some deadline at work or the appearance of being busy (checking emails every 10 minutes falls under this category).
We get to the end of a day with checklists that are incomplete, actions that will occur again tomorrow and a false satisfaction that comes from being busy.
Busy does not mean productive, nor does it mean money.
What I am sharing with you will not make you less busy, but it may make you more productive. A warning though, these are not quick fixes. They will not work unless routinely applied. The first thing is set time aside each week to think. Diarise it, stick to it and use this time to be creative and to think about solutions to problems.
This is not a time to plan, do that elsewhere. This is thinking time not design time. Take a problem or problems and think about creative solutions. One way to look at this is to outline the current problem, describe it. Then flip it and describe what it would look or feel like if it were not there or solved. Then let your mind churn through creative and innovative solutions.
For example, how can a supermarket improve the checkout experience of its clients? What does the presence experience look like bored customers, long queues, tellers looking sour, card machines often offline.
What would it look like if solved: smiling customers leaving the shop feeling happy, short queues with quick turnaround?
Solutions, there are hundreds, give away random prizes at the till, put up televisions with fun stuff to watch, jazz up the waiting zone with lights on the floor that change colour when you walk over them, hire a random celebrity to come chat to customers for the day, have a trolley queue race. Creative time is important.
We all know this. How many of you believe that ideas are key to your business’ survival? So why aren’t you taking the time to generate them not as a group either.
You need your own thinking time not a company brainstorming session. The second thing is to do something for yourself. I’m not talking about treating yourself to a shopping spree.
Take up a hobby or activity that requires you to be creative, not for anyone else’s satisfaction but yourself. Find something you can lose yourself in for hours.
I said earlier that most of our tasks are aimed at fulfilling some deadline at work. They are aimed at fulfilling something external to us, for an organisation, company or client. Pick something you can enjoy for you. Now it needs to involve creativity or something challenging, preferably something using your hands.
Watching television does not count. Take up writing, art, pottery, do jigsaw puzzles, take dance lessons, woodwork, gardening, learn to code a computer game.
There is an endless list. Why is this important?
Firstly, it makes you value time spent on you. It also allows your brain to meander and flow while you engage in something with no deadlines and no external pressures. It helps to foster and stimulate creativity.
I know that I seem to be asking you to do more in order to do less, but if you can engage in these two activities on a regular (think weekly) basis you will find that your creativity and idea generation is enhanced, your management of yourself will improve, you will be more effective and more fulfilled.